How to find the files recursively having a text pattern excluding some directories and files

Question

How to find the files recursively having a text pattern excluding some directories and files?

Example:- 
$ ls
bower.json      bower_components    configure       results         unit-tests

so I need to find "searchText" recursively in all directories excluding bower.json and results

Use a method from https://stackoverflow.com/q/4210042/798223 then use the -exec flag to grep on those files. — GKFX, Aug 04 '17 at 06:29
Could you please provide the exact command? This is not working . find -name "*.js" -not -path results — nagendra547, Aug 04 '17 at 06:50
`find -type f -not -path './bower.json' -not -path './results/*' -exec grep 'searchString' -- '{}' +`, but @RomanPerekhrest's answer is better. — GKFX, Aug 04 '17 at 11:29
Also I've flagged this question, as originally I marked it as a duplicate of the wrong thing, hopefully that should get fixed soon. — GKFX, Aug 04 '17 at 11:31
Thanks GKFX!. I even find grep solution much better and clean approach. — nagendra547, Aug 10 '17 at 15:02

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 04 '17 at 06:35

4

Short grep solution:

grep -r --exclude="bower.json" --exclude-dir="results" "searchText"

answered Aug 04 '17 at 06:35

RomanPerekhrest

Thanks it worked. Just one minor thing. You need to put dot(.) in last. grep -r --exclude="bower.json" --exclude-dir="results" "reset-device" . – nagendra547 Aug 04 '17 at 06:53
@nagendra547, welcome, dot `.` is intended by default – RomanPerekhrest Aug 04 '17 at 12:08

1 Answers1